Wednesday, September 7, 2011

On Admissions Fraud

While I was home this summer, one of my good friends asked me why I confronted my student who had plagiarized and falsified a purpose statement when applying to a French university. She disagreed with my intervention and thought it would be better to let sleeping dogs lie. I'm still inclined to think I'm glad I said something, but I would welcome opinions to the contrary.

Danwei.com has an interesting article on the phenomenon of widespread admissions fraud coming specifically from Chinese applicants to foreign schools. The article title is a bit harsh ("Opening the door to American universities with lies"), but the content is more balanced. They discuss the problems of hiring unscrupulous agents to help with the application process, the potential discrimination faced by Chinese students because of the perception of admissions fraud, and some of the ways in which admissions fraud happens, including plagiarized essays, falsified transcripts, and exaggerated claims such as reporting a 3-month internship when it was only 3-weeks.

An interesting read: "Opening the Door to American Universities with Lies"

Post edit: Another take here: "How American Colleges can Best Serve Chinese Applicants"

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